Just because it's channeled doesn't make it true

One of the things that makes my heart sink is when I read that a particular spiritual technique, or a particular belief system, or a particular 'truth' was received by 'channeling'. I hear too many people accepting channeled information at face value – if a particular idea was 'channeled from the Archangel Gabriel' then that's that, that's the truth according to Mr G. No more consideration or analysis is required. A surprisingly large chunk of the New Age material out there revolves around channeling to one degree or another. Why do people assume that if it's channeled it must be correct?

Channeling information isn't actually that hard. By which I mean, it's not actually that difficult to sit down and start producing ideas, words, images and concepts whilst having no conscious awareness of where they are coming from. These ideas may present themselves using a difference voice, unusual vocabulary and unfamiliar sentence structures. But this doesn't mean that there is anything supernatural or spiritual going on – just ask a fiction writer.

Most people who have experimented with writing fiction will be familiar with times where they are 'in the zone' with their writing, lost in what they are doing. It's most obvious when you read back over something you've written a day or two later and go 'bloody hell, this is good. Where did all this come from?' While you were writing you didn't have any real conscious awareness of the creative process happening, you just wrote and the words just flowed. Characters spoke to you, and seemed to have their own ideas about what they wanted to do. Later you may marvel at just how clever your characters seem to be and how elegant some of your phrases and metaphors were. But you will rarely conclude that your characters really exists and are somewhere out there in the ether telling you this stuff.

I think people who buy into information that has been channeled grossly underestimate just how creative they are and how powerful their unconscious minds are. Some seem to take the fact that they 'couldn't possibly have come up with' their ideas as evidence that it didn't come from them, that it must be an external spirit. Some point to the complexity of the ideas that emerge as proof. Others point out the unusual language, accents, or idioms that their channeled entity uses as evidence. Yet anyone who has spent some time doing dream analysis will already have discovered how complex the imagery of the unconscious mind can be and just how sophisticated it can be of creating the worlds, characters and storylines which spontaneously appear in the mind overnight.

So all channeling is rubbish? Well, actually, I suspect not. I suspect it is possible to be in contact with parts of reality that behave very much like they are external conscious entities. But the point is, you must start from a point of scepticism, begin by assuming what you're getting is from you, and put the burden of proof on the source of your information.

Crowley is justifiably heralded for doing just this. Any time he came into contact with an entity (which frequently spoke through the person, usually woman, who he was with rather than through his own mind) he would challenge them, at some length. He would get them to prove their credentials over and over through requiring complex kabbalistic proofs that they were who they said they were. Frequently he would send the entity away (and these are entities who, to all intents and purposes, appeared to be gods) informing them that he had no interest in what they had to say at that time. He assumed that if it was real it would return, it would prove itself, it would make sure that any important message got across.

I think many of us are so keen on the idea of getting a bit of weirdshit in our lives, of having a mysterious event or receiving some wisdom from 'elsewhere' that we grab at anything that seems like channeled information. We are disinclined to 'test' it, or attempt to hold it back, for fear it will go away and never come back again. Are spirits so easily offended that they'll go off in a huff if we just ask them to demonstrate they aren't our own unconscious mind playing silly buggers with us?

Information from the unconscious mind can still be valuable – again, dream analysis can reveal a great deal when done well. But I think when we receive information we should remember we can't be certain of it's source. 'It' might tell us a name, or tell us a story about who it is, but that doesn't mean that that information is true. Taking the stories of the unconscious mind as being revealed truths can lead to all manner of obsession, confusion and instability… it can become deeply unhealthy, as the stories we tell ourselves tend to reinforce, not challenge, our preconceptions, fears and prejudices.

Being able to channel is a useful skill, and worth exploring, but I think it's vital that it is a technique used with caution, and never as the soul source of information on a topic. We are just too good at telling ourselves stories – and convincing ourselves that they are true – to trust unsupported material.

One Response to "Just because it's channeled doesn't make it true"

There is a big spiritual myth in our culture that a being without a body (a spirit) has more information, knowledge, and wisdom, than one with a body (a person)…actually this is not true and even some very high beings still don't have your innate or unique spiritual information.

The beings people channel have their own agendas and you have to wonder whether many channelers and mediums are even aware of their machinations and designs…I would think that most, unless professionally trained at a clairvoyant institute, are not.

If a being refuses to leave your aura or personal space then you can be sure that it is bullshitting you and does not have your interest in mind; I have even had a friend tell me one being told her "no I won't leave your aura — I'm a goddess, you can trust me." But then when my friend threatened to kick the being out with her visualization tools it turned into something far nastier.

I even personally saw one "healer" that channeled a being that claimed to be Jesus, but it in fact corded every single person at the event and extracted a portion of their sexual energy in return for the "healing." Something tells me it wasn't Jesus 😉